Featured Articles

Advisor-less Investors and the Pursuit of Financial Knowledge

12/17/2014

Whether they think a financial advisor is too expensive or that they could do a better job of investing themselves, advisor-less investors opt to make all of their financial decisions without consulting a professional.

These advisor-less investors, especially, prize financial knowledge and make it a priority so they can be best informed on investment trends, products and strategies. For them, the Internet has become an invaluable resource in wealth management as well as a research tool, according to a new Spectrem Group report on advisor-less investors.

Nearly eight-in-ten advisor-less investors surveyed would be interested in having on a website, smartphone or tablet computer access to their personal account information, while six in ten expressed similar interest in having the ability to look at balances in one place from multiple providers.

Advisor-less investors who make all of their financial decisions without consulting a financial advisor, especially place a high premium on financial knowledge.

Between advisor-less investors who consider financial advisors to be too expensive and those who have more confidence in their own investment abilities, the latter are significantly more likely to express interest in perusing articles or research on financial topics and products on their mobile devices (64 percent vs. 39 percent).

It is a testament to advisor-less investors pursuit of financial knowledge that they express more interest than their more cost-conscious counterparts in using their mobile devices and the Internet as an information resource, including: